Gas barrier films can be used suitably for packaging containers suitable for filling packaging of articles such as foods, beverages, cosmetics, and detergents. Recently, a gas barrier film has been proposed which is produced by forming a thin film of an inorganic oxide such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, or aluminum oxide on one surface of a base film such as a plastic film.
As a method for forming such a thin film of an inorganic oxide on a surface of a plastic base member, physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods such as the vacuum deposition method, the sputtering method, and the ion plating method, as well as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods such as the low pressure chemical vapor deposition and the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method have been known. Meanwhile, as an example of gas barrier films produced by using such a method for producing a film, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 4-89236 (Patent Literature 1) discloses a gas barrier film provided with a multilayer vapor deposition film layer in which two or more silicon oxide vapor deposition films are laminated on a surface of a plastic base member.